


A Hero This Time

by Up_sideand_down



Category: The Legend of Zelda & Related Fandoms
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gen, Gerudo! Link
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-22
Updated: 2017-04-22
Packaged: 2018-10-22 18:34:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,083
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10702740
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Up_sideand_down/pseuds/Up_sideand_down
Summary: The Gerudo fear having another Ganon, but instead they make sure he's Link.





	A Hero This Time

When they realized he was a boy, the Gerudo panicked. It used to be that the birth of the Gerudo male was a time of happiness and celebration. The goddesses promise to them was still there. Then Ganondorf came. 

Even his mother wasn’t sure what to do, turning to their chief, chosen by Nabooru herself to lead them and keep the peace between the Gerudo and all other races of Hyrule. She held him for a long time before making her decision. 

“We’ll raise him to be humble,” she said, “No destined to be king. If he wants to lead, he must earn the right.” The Gerudo sighed in agreement. 

“He will grow up knowing he has to save even the smallest of us,” she said, “He will be raised to be a hero.”

And she gave him the name of one. 

The Gerudo were his mothers and sisters. That’s how Link would always think of them. 

Tender nurturing hands to help him when he was hungry and tired; lost and sad. Pure iron muscle teaching him how to hold up their swords and spears, old veterans telling him tips on how to fight a full grown Molduga out in the desert. Laughing playful eyes, racing him from one side of the city to the other, daring him to steal a sand seal and take it on a joy ride. 

He loved them all. 

When Chief Raina pulled him aside to tell them their history, Link listened. They all worried how he would take it. 

Link was awed with the Hero of Time, wondering how he could ever reach up to his name sake. He begged the oldest Gerudo, the one who had only seen the Hero as a child to tell him anything more. 

“Well…I thought he was a little short,” she eventually told him.

Not long after, Link had a series of nightmares. When he was hushed and comforted he only pointed towards the hall of past chiefs. Ganondorf sneered at them from his old likeness, but did nothing else. 

They all sighed in relief as Link took to scampering past him whenever he had to go through the hall. 

* * *

The couldn’t keep Link a secret though. They didn’t want to, but they wanted him safe. Their worst nightmare soon became fear of a new Ganon harming their son. 

Raina knew they had to act first. Link needed to know about the rest of Hyrule, had seen him gazing out towards the greener hills out in the distance. 

When the letter came from Hyrule castle, she already had an entourage for him. His birth mother, Raina’s personal bodyguard, and the same guard’s appretentice. Who was also Link’s closest friend.  

He cried and cried when she told him he was going. 

“You must be brave,” she told him, “the hero was your age when he first started his adventure. Now you must start yours…but it will be much less dangerous for you though. And you’ll be home before you know it.” 

She was proud watching him leave with his head held high…and his eyes still a little glassy. 

* * *

Link looked around Hyrule Castle with wide eyes and an open mouth. He was used to walls looking plain and dull. The Gerudo usually wore their color. The Hylians put it on their houses it seemed. 

It had taken all his strength not to run around in all the grass to see how different it was from the sand back home. Here…he felt smaller than normal. Sina at least looked as awed as he did. 

He was glad Raina let her come, and his mother. Boorunis  was too stern and stone like to make him feel any better. She tried though. 

Staring up the throne room at the King, Link froze up. His tongue felt heavy and dry in his mouth. He said nothing. He couldn’t say anything. 

The king at least, was patient, offering to meet with him another time. Boorunis spoke for him and said that would be fine. 

Link caught sight of a young Hylian girl. Blonde hair braided neatly, ties matching her dress. She glared at him, sticking her tongue out at him behind her father’s back. 

Sina was the one who responded in kind when the King dismissed them. 

* * *

The King smiled when Link confessed he wished he could meet the Hero of Time. Apparently it was a good answer because the king shook his hand. 

“That’s a good dream to have in my opinion,” he said. 

He also told Link he should meet the other races: the Zora, the Gorons, even the Rito who had just missed Ganon’s rage. 

“You should get to know Hyrule better,” he said, “since you want to protect it.” 

* * *

Their small group went to Kakariko Village first. The Sheikah elders eyed Link much the same fear and worry as the people in Castletown. 

Their children, were another matter. 

In less than a day, Link had taught them all the Gerudo games and they the Sheikah ones. He made friends fast, Sina helping to translate his gestures when his tongue got tied up again. They were the ones to play in the fields of grass with him, and splash him with water from the river. 

When they left Kakarikio it was with the Sheikah blessing. Ganon’s power did not reside in this child. He had no lust for power. 

* * *

All through the voyage up the Zora River, Link watched the water warily. Water in the desert was usually still, calm, and warm. Here it was cold and moved fast. Link wasn’t sure he could swim here. He couldn’t even see the bottom. 

He jumped into his mother’s lap when a head popped out of the water. When he saw Boorunis talking to it like an old friend he calmed down. Sina laughed at him and Link stuck his tongue out at her. 

The king had told the Zora’s he was coming and they were coming to meet him and carry them the rest of the way to Zora’s domain. 

Link gasped when he saw it. The water made the entire thing glow. 

He’d never seen anyone as big as King Dorifin and clammed up again. Boorunis had to speak for him again. She told him later she didn’t mind. They were all welcome to stay as long as they wanted. 

Link spent a long time examining the Zora. He’d never seen anyone with fins before. The Zora all hated the sound of the desert, but they needed their water so he didn’t blame them. 

He loved their songs, the music they made. He was iffy about eating fish, but they promised him he’d like it. 

“Link likes most food,” Sina assured them, nudging him. 

After two days he finally jumped in the water. He panicked until he remembered how to tread water. He wasn’t strong enough to swim back to shore though. 

A Zora jumped in after him. 

“Climb on my back,” she said, “I’ll bring you to shore.” 

* * *

Runa was nice enough, so far as Zora Princesses went. She was as bad a tease as Sina, and both girls got along fabulously. 

But she took a shine to Link. 

“You need fins and scales to swim like us in the river,” she said, “Usually Zoras make armor for our finacés. I don’t like tradition though.” 

* * *

Link felt a little more at home on Death Mountain. It was hot, a little too hot to be honest, but dry. 

The Gorons made up for it. Link loved them all instantly, even if they were a little rough. He longed to roll like they did. Out in the desert they might get stuck, but here it was so efficient going up and down the mountain. 

They insisted on calling Link “brother”. His mother didn’t seem to like it. 

“You seem like a tough one, brother,” one told Sina. She looked over imperiously. 

“I’m not a ‘brother’” she told him. 

“Err…sister?” 

“I can do that one.”

* * *

Link was scared when they told him about fighting Dodongos. They seemed dangerous, but the Gorons said they’d help him. 

“The old Hero of Time did it at your age,” the old chief told him, “and we’ll supply the bombs.” 

Sina, Boorunis, and his mother were all waiting anxiously when he came out of the cave. He was positively beaming and the Gorons all cheered for him. 

The Boss gave Link a big Goron sword. “To grow into,” he said. His mother was livid when she realized they had snuck in a bomb bag too. 

* * *

Link shivered his way up to the Rito Village. The Elder was happy to give him a coat when he did arrive. He snuggled into the down they had stuffed inside. Sina looked just as cozy. 

Link was in awe watching them fly up for their “target practice.” He’d never shot a bow before. 

“He takes to it like a fish to water,” the instructor said after his first lesson, “or a Gerudo to desert.” He hit the target every time after that, but never dreamed of ever being as good as a Rito. 

Still,  wrapped head to toe, and with his mother biting her nails as she looked on, Link gave it a try on his teacher’s back. 

He hit every target. 

“It’s a shame you weren’t born with wings,” he said when they landed. 

The elder had a glider crafted for him, as a parting gift when they left a few days later so he could always be “an honorary Rito” 

“That is the last thing he needs,” his mother said, trying not to watch Link test it out. 

* * *

It was six months later, and they were finally on their way home. They cut through a forest, trying to make it faster. 

Link woke up before dawn, to giggling. He looked around, seeing something flit away with his paraglider. He was on his feet in an instant. 

Just as quickly…he got lost. Boorunis’s training took over and Link closed his eyes, listing for a breeze, a sound to lead him. 

The giggle sounded again. 

Over and over, Link chased the noise. Slowly the trees thinned and the dawn light shone over the woods…and the thing that took his glider. 

He tackled it, pulling the glider back. It laughed harder. 

“You’re back!” it cried, “my old friend!” 

* * *

Link followed the self-named skull kid through to a great clearing, with the biggest tree he had ever seen. 

“So you have come again,” the tree said, “and I have no doubt you’ve forgotten me. I know time is short, but you have come too early now. The sword doesn’t call for you.” 

Link finally saw it…and knew it in an instant. The Master Sword…the sword of the Hero. 

The Great Deku Tree laughed. 

“You can touch it if you wish, but don’t try and take it. It won’t budge.” Link approached reverently, letting his fingers brush over the hilt. He jumped when he realized he had an audience. 

“The children of the forest remember you,” the tree said to him, “even if you don’t remember them. They have changed as much as you have, Link.” The little tree children hopped and laughed over him. 

“He’s so big! So brown! Pretty eyes! Pretty clothes! Can you play with us?” 

“They will follow you home,” the tree said, “a few of them. But…only you can see them. Only you could find your way here.” 

“May I have one promise,” the Deku Tree asked, “Keep my children safe?” 

Link nodded. The Tree laughed. 

“I expected nothing less.” 

* * *

The next time Princess Zelda saw Link, she did not stick out her tongue at him. She instead looked to him as her ally. 

“We know Ganon is coming…and Kakariko is finishing the Divine Beasts,” She said, “we just need the champions.” 

“Princess Runa will be here soon, Instructor Keene taught me to shoot a bow and has been my friend since then. Darune leads the Gorons and won’t let another take his place. Sina insists that she comes with me too. Will they do?” 

“Brisk as ever,” Zelda commented, but smiled, “you just need your sword.” Link blinked. 

“Wait until Ganon sees one of his own countrymen fighting against him,” Zelda said, “we are going to succeed.” 

Link’s heart skipped a beat when he realized what she meant. And far off, a korok laughed and went to tell the Deku Tree. 


End file.
